The Foot Report
THE FOOT REPORT
by Dennis Denlinger
P.O. Box 60431
Sacramento, CA 95860-4539 USA
Internet: denlingr.ix.netcom.com
Compuserve: 75211,1363
FAX 916/485-4539
Copyright 1995 by Dennis Denlinger
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
This report may be copied and distributed by any means, including electronic, with the stipulation that no part may be changed or altered in any way whatsoever.
In this report I will tell you how the foot arch works. This is information everybody needs, whether they have foot pain or not. Even if a foot looks like it has a good arch, it is possible for the foot to hurt when the arch muscles are not being used correctly.
I will also report to you how other flat feet and foot arch problems have been fixed. You may wish to use this information. As long as there is no damage such as broken bones, severed tendons, club feet, etc., and all the bones, muscles and nerves are present and operational it may be possible for you to fix your own flat feet.
BACKGROUND
My Bachelor of Architecture degree was granted by Carnegie-Mellon University. While studying architecture I learned much about how buildings are engineered to stand up without falling. I have applied this knowledge to the foot.
When I was growing up my mother, on a medical doctor's advice, took me to get arch support shoes to handle my flat feet. They did no good. While in high school I worked summers as a caddy. Often, while carrying those golf bags around the course my feet hurt.
Later in life I got a severely in-grown toe nail. The pressure from normal shoes was pressing against the toe causing much pain, so I bought a pair of Earth Shoes - the ones with the BIG toes and low heels. They also had a arch which forced the wearer to have good arches. These "arches" caused me much pain. The information I had about those shoes was that some people loved them and some could not wear them due to pain.
I reasoned that if some people loved those Earth Shoes, and they were hurting my feet, I was doing something wrong. So I looked for what I was doing wrong - and found it. That took me three months. It took another three months to strengthen my muscles to where wearing the shoes was tolerable. After that it took a year of normal walking to re-train my foot and leg muscles to work correctly. Now, for 20 years, I have had nice arches and no more foot pain due to flat feet.
SUCCESSES
Here are some successes others have had after learning about my theories:
"After a short talk with Dennis I was able to understand and work toward correcting a flat foot condition that I have lived with most of my life. I feel certain that this new knowledge will make a big difference in my posture, comfort and well being. I am very enthused over the result."
-R.H.
"I was having terrible trouble with shin splints (I am a dancer). Mr. Denlinger showed me how to use the foot arch muscle and I haven't had any trouble with shin splints since!"
-T.F.
"I was absolutely captivated by the discoveries of Dennis Denlinger as to the engineering structure of the body. It has explained a number of things I could not understand and given me the corrective actions to other, seemingly 'incurable', muscular disorders.
"I feel this is a great step forward towards the understanding of how our body functions and how to keep it always in good shape."
-M.F.
"I used some very basic data from Mr. Denlinger's book which resulted in an almost immediately more comfortable body (in specific situations) and also an understanding of how to maintain and enhance the degree of comfort. Thanks!"
-K.F.
Dr. Gerald Henson, D.C. of Sacramento, California, U.S.A., in the forward to "How the Foot Arch Works" has this to say: "Mr. Denlinger has developed a new theory which chiropractors and lay persons should view as basic to maintaining a harmonious body. As our profession has long known, when bones are misaligned there will be disharmony in the body. After a chiropractic adjustment aligns the bones the improvement in harmony in the body improves the overall health and well-being of the patient.
"Many practitioners have had the frustrating experience of adjusting a bone just to have it go out of place shortly after the patient has left the office. This has long been a mystery. Mr. Denlinger's theories open the way to a possible handling of this problem.
"The discovery that there are certain muscles which, for instance, create the foot arch and that these muscles are voluntary and therefore trainable appears to be very simple. Why didn't someone discover and write of this before? Perhaps we will never know. In any case, it has now been discovered and written about. We can now use the data to help our patients."
TERMS OF THIS REPORT
SHAREWARE: This report is offered to you similar to shareware computer software in that you get to try it and if you like it and are ethical about paying your debts you will pay me, the author, for my work. I want $10 (US) for my work from every person who gets benefit from this report. That means, if you were given a hard copy by someone else and got benefit, you also send me money, even if the person you got it from also did. You can send the $10.00 (US) shareware fee to me in cash (any hard currency), check (US funds) or money order (US funds), gold or other exchangeable item at the above address.
Although I will hold nothing back in this report, without adequate drawings it may not be possible for everyone to understand it and to do it correctly. Since this report is intended for posting on the Internet, drawings are not possible. Therefore, at the end of this report I will tell you how to get my illustrated booklet on the subject. The booklet is more of a home-study course on how to get your own foot arch to working correctly. It is designed for a sixth-grade reading level with many drawings and workbook type questions to answer. You check off each step of learning as you do it, and when you are done you will have a good understanding of how to work your feet correctly. Anyone, whether they have flat feet or not, should understand how this part of their body works. If you get the book, you will not need to pay for this shareware version.
DISCLAIMER
There are laws in most states and countries requiring that health care professionals be licensed as qualified in the field of care which they provide. I have not been licensed as a health care professional. Therefore, I may not give you any advice nor may I promise or offer to alleviate any pain or physical condition. If you feel you need that kind of care, go see a health care professional.
In the USA, the First Amendment to our Constitution does give me the right of free speech which I am exercising. In this report I am talking freely about my discoveries of how the human body's foot works. I have studied structure in architecture school and have studied the placement of muscles and bones in "Gray's Anatomy", a standard medical and chiropractic school textbook. I have experimented on my own body to develop the theories. I have freely spoken to others who have then tried the theories on their own bodies with results similar to mine.
In giving you these data and theories I am doing my best to ensure that you understand what I have to say. It is up to you to evaluate the truth of what I say and whether it applies to you. If you decide to try to apply this data to yourself, it is totally your responsibility After all, although I do not believe it, I may be totally wrong in what I wrote in this book.
Therefore, please heed this warning:
There is NO GUARANTEE, written or implied, that any physical condition of any kind will be alleviated or improved by using the data included herein. There is not even a recommendation that you, or anyone else, use the data included herein. This report is merely a reporting on the discoveries of the author and how the data was applied in some few specific instances. The actual use of the data included herein is done entirely and totally on the responsibility of you, the reader. If you want help with a specific physical condition, go see a licensed health care professional.
BASIC UNDERSTANDING
A joint is where two bones meet. Muscles can hold bones together at the joints - when they are working. However, muscles are not always working such as when you sleep.
Ligaments are the backup system which holds bones together at the joints when the muscles are not working.
Let's do an experiment to get more understanding. Hold your right arm out with the palm down. Relax the muscles in your right arm so that the hand flops limply down. Now, using your left hand, push on the back of your palm, forcing your right wrist to bend more than it was meant to. If you push enough, the wrist will hurt. Only do it enough to get the idea.
Contract the muscles in your right arm which pull your hand up until your wrist is not so much bent. Do not make your right wrist completely straight, but keep it somewhat bent. Then, with your left hand, press on the back of your palm again, trying to bend your right wrist. This time, using the muscles in your right arm, Do Not Let Your Right Wrist Bend any more than it already has. You will find that your right wrist does NOT hurt, no matter how hard you push with your left hand. You can now relax and I will tell you the theory of what is happening.
In any well-engineered machine such as a jet plane, space shuttle or even many cars the important systems, such as brakes in cars, have back-up systems which operate when the main (primary) system breaks down. When the main system has failed and the back-up system starts operating, there are loud bells and bright flashing red lights to let the operator know that there is something wrong which needs fixed.
In the human body, when the muscles stop operating and the ligaments start carrying a heavy load across the joint between bones, pain is the loud bell and flashing light which lets the operator (you) know that something is wrong.
THE ARCH WORKS THIS WAY
First you will need to locate a bone in your foot, so take off your right shoe. I will do this description on the right foot. The left is similar, but reversed.
There is a part of the foot immediately behind the big toe which is called the Ball of the foot. It looks a bit like a ball when looked at from the bottom or side of the foot. The ball is formed in part by a bone which goes from the ball up toward the ankle. It is about as long as half the distance from the ball to the ankle. Find this bone in your foot.
Next, you need to know that a TENDON is a strong rope-like material which connects muscles to bones. It is used like a rope to move bones which are some distance from the muscle which does the work.
Once again find the bone which helps form the ball of the foot and goes toward the ankle. Locate the upper end, which is about half way between the ball and the ankle. There is a tendon which attaches to this bone at this point. The tendon goes diagonally towards the rear across under the foot and when it gets to the other side it goes up, wrapping around the part of the bone which sticks out to the right of the ankle.
You can feel this tendon operate. Cross your right leg over your left. Using your right index finger, touch the bottom part of the bone which sticks out to the right of your right ankle. Using your left fingers, pull up on the ball of your right foot. Use a repetitive pull and release motion. Push back against your fingers with the ball of your right foot. As you push and relax, push and relax with the ball of the right foot, your right index finger will be able to feel the tendon get hard and soft. You may need to shift your index finger around a bit on the ankle. Do that several times until you have the tendon identified.
Keep pushing with the ball of your right foot and relaxing, while at the same time moving your right fingers up the front outside part (about 2 o'clock) of your right leg until you can feel the muscle which operates the tendon. Keep pushing and relaxing the ball until you have the muscle well identified and can operate that muscle without any guidance like you just had.
You have just located the muscle and tendon which forms the arch in the human foot. It is a voluntary muscle and can be trained to operate correctly. For now, let's call this the Main Arch Muscle. My copy of "Gray's Anatomy," published by Bounty Books (ISBN 0- 517-223651) calls this muscle the 'peroneus longus'.
Now that you have located the Main Arch Muscle, look at the bottom of you right foot. The weight of your body is carried on three points: 1) the ball of the foot which is just behind the big toe; 2) the part of the foot just behind the little toe; 3) the heel. The toes do not have enough strength to carry a significant amount of weight.
The weight of the body when standing still should be divided with at least half (or more) being carried by the ball of the foot and the remaining weight being divided equally with half being carried by the part of the foot just behind the little toe and half being carried by the heel.
HERE IS WHAT YOU DO
Your foot can rock back and forth side to side. This is so you can walk sideways across a hill in either direction.
Stand where you can hold onto something. Lift your right leg off the ground and rock it from left to right and back again as far as it will go. Find the approximate center point. Rock your foot until it is approximately at the center point and be sure you can find it again.
Put your right foot down on the ground with the foot rocked to the approximate center point and keep it there. Use your Main Arch Muscle to push the ball of your foot down hard enough to carry half the weight which that foot carries and distribute the remaining weight between the part of the foot just behind the little toe and the heel.
If you do not operate the foot and use the Main Arch Muscle this way whenever standing, the bottoms of the bones of the foot will separate, stretching those ligaments, causing pain - the loud bells and red lights - which warn the operator, you, that the foot is not being used correctly.
When the foot is being used correctly, as described above, you will notice that the toes point straight forward or ever so slightly in. If they point in a lot or point out, something is not being done correctly.
SPRINGS
When walking or running, continue keeping the Main Arch Muscle contracted. The correctly operating foot functions as a spring to absorb physical shocks as you run or walk, thus protecting the body from jars, vibration and shocks.
Also, when walking or running, as the heel touches down, resist letting the toes flop immediately down. Instead, ease them down. This will increase the shock absorbing capability of the foot.
EXERCISES
For the most part special exercises are not needed. Merely using your foot as described above while doing your normal exercise program will give the muscles ample exercise. Just make sure you DO use the foot correctly.
In case your Main Arch Muscle is extremely weak, you can increase it's strength as follows:
- Hold onto a chair or lean against a wall.
- Press the balls of both feet against the floor. Keep doing this.
- Stand >only< on the balls of both feet.
- Now relax the Main Arch Muscle.
- Do this again, relax, do again. Start with doing a little each day and then gradually build up to doing more and more.
ASSISTANCE & ETC.
Some people, of which I was one, may have the "arch" so flat and out of shape that they need a chiropractor's adjustment to move the bones into the correct position to form the arch. Excessive pain while getting the foot to working correctly may indicate the need of adjustments or other problems. Once that the correct position is achieved, and the muscles are strengthened, it should be possible to maintain the correct position on one's own.
While getting the foot arches to working correctly the body may feel weird and mis-shapen; the feet may feel out of place. I found this to be normal & disappears as the body becomes used to the new situation.
SHAREWARE AGREEMENT
Remember our agreement, that if you get benefit from this report, you will send me $10.00 US to the address at the top of the report.
GET THE BOOKLET
The booklet, "How the Foot Arch Works" is a home-study course on how to get your own foot arch to working correctly. It is designed for a layman with at least a sixth-grade reading level (or higher). It has many drawings and workbook type questions to answer. You check off each step of learning as you do it, and when you are done the entire booklet you will have a good understanding of how to work your foot arches correctly. Anyone, whether they have flat feet or not, should understand how this part of their body works. If you get the book, you will not need to pay for this shareware report.
If you feel that you, or someone you know, also need(s) the illustrations or the course presentation, you can get a copy of the booklet "How the Foot Arch Works" by sending your name, address, a statement of what you want and a check or money order for ($20.00 for USA addresses) (US$30.00 in US funds for foreign addresses) which included all taxes, shipping and handling to:
SAY IT IN PRINT
P.O. Box 60431
Sacramento, CA 95821-0431
U.S.A.
ALSO BY THE SAME AUTHOR
You may also be interested in "Practical Nutrition+", a monthly electronic newsletter about care of the human body. Back issues are available via FTP at: etext.archive.umich.edu in the /pub/Zines/PracticalNutrition/ directory.
To subscribe to the electronic version of "Practical Nutrition+" send both your e-mail AND Paper Mail addresses to denlingr@ix.netcom.com or to Dennis Denlinger, P.O. Box 60431, Sacramento, CA 95860-0431, USA. Your address will Not be distributed to others, but we may send you other pertinent information from time to time.
